Elderly man dies in Snowdon fall

An RAF helicopter was sent to help the man on Snowdon

An inquest has opened into the death of a walker who fell near the summit of Snowdon.

John Blackwell, 70, from Salisbury, Wiltshire, was with his wife when he fell 80ft (24m) from a ridge more than 3,000ft (914m) up on the Watkin Path.

A Sea King helicopter based at RAF Valley, Anglesey, was sent to help just after 1200 GMT on Thursday.

Efforts to revive him failed. The helicopter later returned to Snowdon to pick up Mr Blackwell's wife.

She was flown down to Llanberis Pass.

An inquest was opened and adjourned by coroner Dewi Pritchard-Jones at Caernarfon on Friday.

There are reports that Mr Blackwell could have been trying to recover a rucksack which had fallen.

The Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team and RAF were informed and Mr Blackwell was airlifted to the Ysbyty Gwynedd hospital in Bangor, where he was pronounced dead.

The mountain rescue team were later ferried off the mountain by the helicopter.

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